A February 1920 Gandhi letter emphasizing peaceful tactics against the British will be auctioned at Nate D. Sanders’ Tuesday October 11, 2011 auction.
Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement encouraged indigenous Indians to resist the British occupation by using peaceful non-violent means and complimented the emerging nationalist Swaraj movement for Indian self-rule.
Just months after Gandhi’s letter, the Indian National Congress voted to accept Swaraj in September 1920.
1920 Gandhi peace letter estimated to sell between $15,000 and $20,000.
The letter signed by Mahatma Gandhi dated 24 February 1920 from the Sabarmati Ashram deals directly with satyagraha, Gandhi’s doctrine of nonviolence methods of resistance, and the relationship between the British and India. The satyagraha non-cooperation movement led by Gandhi encouraged Indians to resist British occupation using nonviolent means, such as refusing to buy British goods. It went hand in hand with swaraj, the growing movement for Indian self rule. This letter, to Edmund Candler, the Director of Publicity for the Punjab, follows a particularly brutal massacre by the British that took place in Punjab in April 1919. Two page letter reads in part: “…You may depend upon my making a ceaseless effort to promote peace with honour and to avoid violence under all circumstances. But my doctrine of non-violence is making slow headway because of the rude conduct of Englishmen generally towards Indian passengers on the trains and the Mahomedan distrust (not wholly unjustified) of the good faith of England in the matter of Turkey…I have been asking Englishmen to find a Christian as distinguished from a gunpowder solution…” In September 1920, only months after Gandhi wrote this letter, Swaraj would be accepted by the Indian National Congress. Letter is signed in black ink: “M.K. Gandhi”. Moderate toning and wear, overall in very good condition. An important and rare unpublished signed letter by the man who inspired all non-violent movements of the 20th century.
The auction ends Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at 5 pm Pacific Standard Time.
